Generally, digital data is distributed subject to a license or similar written agreement, regarding use, modification, and redistribution. Distribution is conditioned upon the acceptance of the license terms, which requires an express acknowledgement to be bound. Licenses protect the licensor and can permit legal recourse in the event of a breach of license terms. Acknowledgment is critical to ensuring the availability of license protections. Source code, for instance, is frequently proprietary and represents significant outlays of time, money and effort. Likewise, software publishers risk losing significant potential revenue or royalties due to illicit copying. Licenses help to safeguard such interests.
Digital data is commonly distributed on-line and on physical media. Web-based on-line digital data distribution is frequently provided with a “click through” prompt that must be toggled to signify acceptance of license terms. Physical media digital data distribution requires opening an envelope or breaking a “shrink wrap” seal to signify acceptance.
Both Web-based and physical media acceptance confirm license acknowledgment through user action, that is, a click-through or opening of physical media. However, these steps can be bypassed to avoid license acknowledgement. Illicit online copies, for instance, can be redistributed following download without requiring subsequent users to acknowledge the license and be bound. Similarly, bootlegged copies of physical media can be disseminated without reference to the license. In both situations, recipients of illicit copies need not acknowledge agreement to be bound to the license and the licensor is left with limited legal and practical recourse.
To help combat unlicensed distribution and use, digital data distributions can include an installer application. A user executes the installer application, which conditions installation upon acceptance of the license terms. Although providing an additional layer of assurance, determined scofflaws can still compromise these applications to skip license acceptance.
Cryptographic keys can also be used to help combat unlicensed distribution and use. The licensor maintains a key distribution mechanism to issue cryptographic keys to authorized users and a licensee enters the cryptographic key to acknowledge the license. Key distribution mechanisms, though, involve significant maintenance costs and can create additional complexity for users, who generally must reenter a cryptographic key if the digital data is reinstalled. Tracking cryptographic keys can be especially problematic for a licensee with numerous licenses or for whom significant time has passed since original installation. Cryptographic keys can also be compromised through illicit key copies.
Despite the foregoing efforts, license acknowledgement remains an act separate from the digital data and a determined user can avoid accepting license terms by circumventing the mechanism employed.
Therefore, there is a need for providing a mechanism to ensure acceptance of a digital data distribution license that is intrinsic to the actual digital data. Such an approach would preferably be providable as part of layered security to confirm express acknowledgement as a condition of use.